Apple’s Siri Gains Traction–For Some Things

New research set to be released this week found that 87% of those who own Apple’s iPhone 4S use at least one feature of its Siri virtual assistant monthly.

But most usage is across a relatively limited set of functions, according to consulting group Parks Associates, which surveyed 482 owners of the iPhone 4S, the only device to carry the service.

Apple introduced Siri last fall with the 4S and has been advertising it as a big differentiator for the hit device. The technology can perform a variety of tasks from searching for information to sending an email to scheduling meetings by voice. Unlike other types of voice-activated services, Siri can understand the way humans speak normally. Commanding it to “wake me up at 9 a.m.” can set the iPhone’s alarm, for instance.

But users aren’t proving adventurous with their usage. Making phone calls and sending text-messages are the most popular activities, according to the report, a sign that Siri usage is mirroring how people use their phones more generally. Roughly a third of 4S owners use Siri to place phone calls, send text messages, or look up information daily or almost daily.

Many other Siri services are getting little pickup, however. They include playing music and scheduling meetings. Thirty-two and 35% of 4S users, respectively, said they had never used Siri to perform those actions. Those categories also had some of the lowest percentage of users that did either daily or almost daily.

Email usage is pretty split, with 30% saying they have never used Siri to send an email while 26% say they use it to send email daily or almost daily.

The pattern comes as users continue to complain that Siri struggles to understand accents and needs dead quiet to work.

Those complaints were echoed by Parks Associates, which found that the technology stirred up strong emotions in users; many either raved about or panned Siri in anecdotal comments. The comments ranged from “best thing since the invention of toast” to “it’s very disappointing,” according to the report.

Some 55% of 4S users said they were satisfied with Siri, 9% were unsatisfied, and the rest were somewhere in between.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.

Parks Associates conducted the research amid an expected boom in voice-activated technology as consumer electronics companies try to broaden how their devices are used.

Only 37% of 4S owners said they definitely wanted voice-commands on their television set, while 20% said they did not want them there. Mr. Barrett said he attributes the “limited enthusiasm” for the feature on TVs to concerns it doesn’t work well in noisy areas. “When watching TV there is so much background noise,” he said.